How to Make a Living Selling What You Make

Lesson 29 of 41

Your Big Business Vision

How to Make a Living Selling What You Make

Lesson 29 of 41

Your Big Business Vision

Lesson Info

Your Big Business Vision

Hello, everyone so today we're on lesson twenty three your big business division so our goal for today is to set the big vision for your business, right? We want the big picture, so we know what you're working towards, right? So in the last lesson, we created a plan for growth based on your current and future revenue streams, right? We figured out how much money you wanted to make were needed to make right to hit that make a living number where was going to come from each revenue stream, what times of year, and then what action steps need to happen to get you there, right? Let's, take a look at where we are in this boot camp were on session three, create your plan for business success and we're almost done with only a couple more lessons left say we're looking at your big business division, so the reality is, if you don't know where your business is going, you'll never get there, right? You don't know the destination you can't get there and there's nothing wrong with a spontaneous road...

trip. So you know to wherever you happen to end up, but that is no way to run a business, right? We want to know where we're headed for we're not exactly sure how to get there, we want to know where we're headed. So we could at least point in the right direction now no one else can set the vision for your business it has to come from you this is hard for a lot of people, right? We're used to being told what to dio used having bosses or teachers or parents or whoever right telling us what to dio you have to decide where you want your business to go, you can't look to someone else yeah, you could work with a business coach work with an advisor, but you need to have the vision, otherwise you're gonna end up some place that you don't want to go right? So in the email through visited michael gerber says the entrepreneurial perspective that's thinking like an entrepreneur, not like an employee, right? The entrepreneurial perspective starts with a picture of a well defined future and then comes back to the present with the intention of changing it to match the vision doesn't start with the present and be like wherever we're going it's fine today, right? We'll just see where we end up. The entrepreneur starts with the big picture to figure out where they want to go and what's great about that is then you get to wake up every morning and you got to ask yourself, what am I doing today to get me closer to that goal? To get me closer to the vision a lot of people have that paralysis right of what they're supposed to be working on, what they're supposed to be doing every day and then of spinning their wheels. Part of the problem is that we're often not focusing enough on revenue generation, right? We talked about that, but the other problem is that you don't have that big vision, right? How do you decide what to do each day when you don't know where you're going, right? So before we define your big vision, want to bring on a guest. So tracy matthews is the chief visionary officer of flourishing thrive academy, and she's also built her own really flourishing jewelry business in the high end custom market. So let's, go ahead and bring tracy on cause I'm super excited to hear from her. I am so excited to have you thank you for joining us, alright, my pleasure. So I want to dive right in because this lesson is all about creating your big business vision, and you've given yourself this title of chief visionary officer, and I know it's something that you also do with the clients that you work with, and it's actually, why I wanted to bring you on when you said that I was like, that is the best idea I've heard, right? So where did that come from, right? So where did it come from? Okay, so company when I've been in the jewelry industry for a long time and a wholesale business for many, many years and I used to always call myself that ceo and creative director you know, out of the designer I'm a creative person but then over the years you know I would sort of sit back and see what I really like doing and I love coming up with ideas I love coming up with vision I love focusing on the design aspect I love um really just thinking about like, of where this business is going and how am I going to get there kind of thing and so you know, there was a point you know, I've been doing you know, obviously been in the industry for a long time and most of my time in my jewelry business is really about building big relationships and getting referrals for my custom business so for instance I just lost my train of thought so being the ceo is really cool but for some reason it just didn't really describe my role because I was really focusing more on bigger picture vision and bringing things in and recently I just read this book and I sort of really understood why I kind of came to this idea of calling myself and teaching the designers that we work with it to call themselves chief visionary officers it's from a book called traction by gina whitman and he calls a visionary a person who has lots of ideas there's if you take thinkers and they always see the big picture, they have a pulse on their industry, and they connect the dots and researchers and develop new products and services, and the visionary typically is the founding operation entrepreneur who operates more on motion and has a d d but not always, and this person is great with big relationships, the culture of the organization and solving big, ugly problems, not the little ones. So seeing things that others can't and they create and hold the company vision and our great at closing the big deals so visionaries are often the creators of everything. So when you think of someone who's, a maker or designer or they're trying to get themselves out of the world, will they're spending most of their time being creative? Coming up with this big idea following their passion and the leader of a company is really a visionary, regardless of the title, because why not use that title instead of something stuffy like the president or owner or ceo? Because what you're doing is really focusing on your vision and the idea of how you want to get your heart out into the world. I love that by putting it right in your title, your reminding yourself every day that that's your number one job in the business you're number one you don't want to be the visionary and I love that so one of the things that I've heard you talk about before that I really love is this idea of the visionary mind set versus the employees mindset we have so many people in this audience who are coming from either having a day job or still being in a day job trying to quit it so it's really easy, I think to slide into that employee mindset versus that visionary one can you talk about those differences? Absolutely so when I started my first business, you know, I basically did you know, I love that you brought up thema through visited as you, as you know, from our conversations, that's one of my favorite business books, but when I first started my business, you know, I knew I had this talent I really wanted to start a business, but essentially what I did was really just create a job for myself, you know, it wasn't really thinking about okay, so, you know, I created some business plan that is, like, so ridiculous, it was like thirty five pages or something, I don't think I ever looked at it again, I was like only three years I'm going to be doing a million dollars in sales. Well, that's not really possible what you have like a lot of capital based on the business model. So it was, you know, my count really encouraged me to read this book the myth, and once I did, my eyes were just open because I realized I'd been approaching my business, like what michael gerber calls a technician perspective or what I like to call the employees perspective because they're really someone who's working in a business rather than on the business and there's another quote, if you don't mind, I'll quote it for you, you have to it's, the email for the entrepreneurial myth, states that most businesses failed to achieve their potential because most business owners are not entrepreneurs. They're technicians suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure, so in order to create its really successful business, you have to work on it and not in it. So this seemed to really find in the beginning to create this job for myself, but the problems really set in later, because as my business started to grow, I wasn't really thinking about how all the independent parts of my business fit together and how I was going to reach those goals, so I was sort of stuck in a vicious cycle of feast or famine. With the poorly run operation and my creativity ended up being totally tapped and it barely had time to do the stuff that I really loved so this one site is sort of like embraced this idea was like all right something's gotta shift I got to really focus on the bigger picture thanks and it was ah hard transition at but it was one of the best things that ever did because if you approach your business from the perspective of just creating a job for yourself because you're good at a specific skill or talent you know you're never going to really reach but like probably financial success because you're always going to be reacting instead of being proactive um so if you if I think about why I started my business on dh for most of us I'm sure I can't guarantee that most of us started because we had some passion or some talent that we wanted to get out in the world and we wanted to make a living from our creativity so when you start to think of this when you start to think bigger if you are sorry let me rephrase that if you don't start to think bigger you're going to get stuck in that day today and you're never going to be able to take the next step so I came up with a few examples of like the difference between a chief visionary officer and employees so like a visionary officer is going to be looking at the big picture goals of their business they're going to actually have a sales goal for the year most likely they might even have like a three year plan even maybe even bigger than that you never know but they're always thinking about their dreams what the future holds, how their approach to business is unique they're also dealing with what's right in front of them on a daily bit basis but they're thinking about how their actions really affect that bigger picture so in employee is probably someone who is going to like like as you were mentioning earlier they're going to just show up to work without a plan and not really think about what their goals are when they're coming to work each day. Okay, so what do I need to get done in order to achieve my weekly goal that's going to support the month legal that's going to support the year legal or the quarterly goals to the year legal? A chief visionary officer my you know when it's time to hire people they're probably gonna really do some re kon put people through testing process and hire the best candidate for the position now I can speak from personal experience that when I first started hiring people in my business I have heard people because I like them not because they were really the best person for the position now that was fun. We had a lot of talk about, you know, I was wasting my money, you know, paying someone who talked all day rather than, like, focused on the job, which was, like really, like it seemed it sounds funny, but it's true, like it's really easy to get stuck in this trap of just like, getting people on board that u like rather than the right person and then another example that I hade is that, you know, when I was first starting out in business, I was really like when I would find materials or stones or stuff for my jury just oh, that's pretty I'm gonna buy it that's pretty. I'm gonna buy it like fifteen strands of that or, you know, two lots of those stones or whatever without really thinking about, like, what I was going to do with them so eventually had, like boxes and boxes of materials that I never used, it was just like wasting money so like a visionary would approach that from a perspective. Okay, so here's my design plan this is this is what I these are the materials I need, you know, I might buy a few extra things just to play around with and see what comes out of it, but, you know, I'm focused on like, no projecting what I'm going to need and how I'm going to use those materials so that I'm done with them at the end of the season and I'm not leftover with extra inventory. So, you know, I think more than anything is just really just like the shift in perspective. You know, obviously a lot of us and small business, we're gonna have to do a lot of different things, but it's, really how you approach your business for that, anything. I'm actually was chuckling at your stone story because, you know, I recently launched a collection featuring stone, anyone so and I bought that initial batch, not knowing, but I did. I was tomorrow. I have to pretty small, and now I've actually been buying a lot of stones, but I sat down and I forecasted out what my revenue goals were and how many pieces I was going to need to make to hit those. And so, yes, I've been buying stones like crazy but it's, right, it's, part of that kind of bigger picture and bigger plan, right? I wantto. I want to put it back teo right now I want and it's nice because then you can actually you can justify making the purchase right if it supports that big vision s I want to actually pull back to something that you said really quickly because I think it's such a key point and people may have missed it because it was so fast is this idea of being proactive and not reactive right on I think I get that question a lot I'm thinking you get it too of how do you get so much done right in your day and I have a feeling that it's probably because you're proactive and not reactive. So can you talk about that idea a little bit more? Absolutely. So you talked about revenue generating activities we call them our ji a's over here my main focus every day is to focus on something that's going to support a revenue generating activity that's going to be money into my business and help it grow and either of my business and you know I don't have to be so you know, I felt I feel like when you know, like on any day when I feel off like I feel like I don't didn't get anything done at the end of the day it's because I didn't have a plan now I work with a lot of creative people as you d'oh and I think one of the things that people say a lot of the pushback that we we typically get is that people really struggle with this idea of creating structure in their day now creative people are advantage in a lot of ways because they can come up with tons of ideas they never have like a loss of, you know, design inspiration or, you know, maybe marketing vision or something, but one of the things that sometimes can be lacking is this idea of structure and setting up your day in a way so that you can really be a success. So a couple of things that I recommend to people and I actually do myself is I try to schedule up my day in advance do you have to take a lot of calls? So I tried to take my calls on specific days of the week so I'm not scattered all over the place I try to time block so that's something that we teach a lot of our designers tio look at their schedule and say ok, so the first fifteen, twenty minutes of the day I'm gonna work on social media, you know? And then the next two hours I'm gonna focus on revenue generating activity, which is hopefully sales which I think is the number one most important thing you should do then maybe take a lunch break and then you come back and you know, focus on maybe pr and marketing and then take another break and then maybe focus on whatever else it is that you have to get done in order to reach whatever goals you're trying to achieve maybe it's designing a new designing a piece for a client like that that's how it will be in my case so it's really about creating structure about having some sort of set schedule it's about focusing on things that are going to move you toward your vision and the final thing that I recommend is really only picking three things a day that you must complete and not doing anything else until those three things are complete because I know you know, as a visionary is funny in that quote from gino whitman it's a lot of cheap vision our officers are a d d it's really easy for me to get distracted and like you like o think about something okay, I'm gonna go over here so it's just like focusing on those three things making sure that those get done before anything else and approaching your day from a proactive way instead of just like, okay, it's time to work I'm gonna sit down now what should I d'oh right? And I love that in your example know where did you say like check email for two hours, right? Cause I always find that that's like super reactive mind set, right? When you wake up in the first thing you do is check your email so reactive so I wantto tell you know, because I don't check it enough for me to see you, but I think there's something there, right? This is what this is why we're running these businesses, right? So I want to go back to this idea of, like, the visionary versus the employees because there are a lot of people watching this who are one woman or one man shows, and so the little stuff that kind of employees have still has to get done at some point, right? So how do you keep that visionary mindset even in those times when you do actually have to sit down and work in the business instead of on it, right? Megan, you know, it's like you never when you have a small business, you're always going to be wearing like a million doesn't matter you have the title to visionary officer, and you have ten employees or if you're working alone, you're always gonna be doing a lot of stuff that is outside your job description. So, you know, I think it comes back to that idea of, uh, really planning and being proactive, so what I like to do is spend a couple hours a week focusing on you know something to businesses I have to segment my time a little bit with both but like for my jewelry business like I spent it maybe like an hour probably less than ideal and flourishing thrive academy um an hour a week thinking about okay, so what like really coming up with my goals for the year what's my a strategy for the next quarter how many more clients do I need to get inside like really thinking about you know, kind of where I am and what needs to happen in order to reach those things and you know, luckily I have an assistant now so I'm able to delegate some stuff but before I had an assistant you know, I was working my tail off, you know, like segmenting bringing in the clients you know, doing the design, running all the projects, making sure that they were getting done. So I think studying time aside time every week to really focus on your big vision and then really being diligent about freeing priorities and like I said, doing the three things today that are gonna help you get whatever it is that you need done and then really just approaching her business from a different mindset, you know, the maker community is so strong, but I think you know, one of the big push backs that we get is that people I really love you know spending all their time making but that's that's wonderful and great but if that's what you want to do then you're probably not a business owner because you're not really going to be focusing on the things that are bringing money into your business so you know part of your time is going to be making and doing that production but probably most of your time really needs to be focused on some of these bigger things and bringing the money into the business so that you can grow your business and then you know if it is your in your plan and you desire maybe someday that you're beyond the one woman show right? So when you first started your jewelry business you had a very different business model right then you have now so what made you realize that that previous model wasn't working for you and interestingly that model that didn't work for us pretty similar to the one that works for me right now right so what made you realize that the business model wasn't working for you and why does the one you're in now suit your vision so much better right that's such a great question so when I started out in the jewelry industry gosh twenty years ago started date myself thie on li wei to sell your story was to sell wholesale so that's what I did I started a business I created a collection I started selling two stores. I loved it for many, many years. In fact, I worked in retail before I was even a designer, and I thought I was always going to be a buyer. So I ended up being on the other end of the spectrum, and I started, you know, selling two buyers, you know, I did that for a long time. And, you know, I think one of the things that's really cool now is that there are so many different ways to have business, but kind of going back to that. My previous business, you know, I was in maybe you're eight or nine, and I just realized I wasn't really happy anymore. And so I started investigating that, and I think when you're not happy in your business or in life, things just start toe falter, so economy was starting to crash. You know, sales were down a little bit from previous years. There were certain things that I was struggling with, and I just realized, like, a lot of that was sort of like the aftermath of I mean, not the economy, but the aftermath of sort of this like how I was feeling about my business you know, I was tired because like what I was doing every day was not really what I love to dio you know, I spent most of my time because I'd grown my business tio a point where at one point on thirteen people working on my team but I would go into the office every day and I spent most of my time no managing people and that's not really what I find up for like I find up tio be a visionary to be, you know, creating designs and working with people and getting my work out into the world in a bigger way so that model is like, so was so great for me for so long, but it really didn't work. So what? My company was kind of going through these struggles I did hire some consultants to kind of like home we kind of worked through it and figure out like the next phase of my business. And I remember sitting in this meeting and the my consultant said to me now because I probably had said something like, I'm just so unhappy and I was probably even crying the president's crying but I was just so happy he's like, well what is it that you love to dio and I was like, that is a great question, you know, I really I love designing I love working with clients I love selling like actually love selling my jewelry, which is like a lot of people don't like yourself. I love having a personal connection or coming up with these like ideas that people like when people put something on that was just, like, so happy, and it lights them up. And so he he kind of actually proposed the idea, you know what? If you like, change your business model and I was like, I don't know, like, I just feel trapped like this is the only way to do it so it's funny, because, like, when you become open, the universe presents interesting opportunities to you. So I had a client come to me, they love the way the kind of jury, a design and asked me to design an engagement ring. So that was my first custom commission design project. I worked on this project, I loved it, I loved everything about it I loved, you know, brainstorming, coming up with ideas for the client, presenting things to them. I loved that, get them giving feedback and, like me having the challenge of having to refine it and make it look amazing and like, I'm like, this is what I should be doing, and so I realized in that moment and it's funny because like shortly thereafter, I started getting more of these, like random commissions out of the blue, and it was like, not even part of my business model all I didn't do any sort of bridal jewelry, so it was kind of funny uh huh, but I realized in that moment that at any point, like if something's not serving you, you have the opportunity to change your mind, and I think but I felt so stop where I wass because I had started a specific way that I wasn't allowing myself the flexibility to change my mind, you know? And at one point, you know, I thought, like, I was going to be the famous designer, I want to be in thousands of stores all over the world, I want to have a multi million dollar business and that's, like, amazing, like so great in, like, awesome for a lot of people, right? But I can tell you it's also a huge pain in the ass and a lot of work, so I don't really want to work that hard again you are, but I still wanted to make a lot of money, and I knew that, um, you know, I had to shift into a market where I had higher margins that you know, my return on investment for each model was going to be higher and then I was doing something that really lit me up because if I wasn't like I wasn't going to be a very good designer, so it was really kind of about making this decision in the choice to make a difference to change, to change my mind and it was one of the best things that ever did, so I highly encourage anyone if you ever notice that you aren't feeling good about what you're doing or you seem like you're on the right path and or you seem like you're not on the right path or something's not sitting right to really sit with that and investigate why? Because there are a lot of different reasons for me it meant shutting down my business and starting in a new direction and you know in hindsight it was the best thing I did because when I started over I was able to use all of the mistakes that I made in my first business and become highly profitable in a very, very short period of time. And now you know, it's like I don't have two businesses most of my time is actually focused on force and thrive academy, but I have a constant waiting list of clients were willing to work for me because I am doing what I love and people can tell and that it makes them want to work with so I don't know it's just a fun place to be in and it's been such an amazing transformation and exciting one. So yeah, that's that's sort of how I shifted that fantastic. So one last thing that I want to talk about when you and I were chatting before we both talked about hard how different our businesses are from when we originally started, right? So how do you define your vision in a world that's changing super rapidly, right? I could even imagine that my business would look like it does. When I first started, I thought I was gonna do retail craft shows forever, right? Right. So how do you balance that right? Creating that big vision when there might be opportunity opportunities for your business that haven't even been invented yet, right? Yeah, well, I mean, I think the most important thing is to be flexible, and this is like such a such a great question. And I love talking about stuff like this because I have this theory and I hope it's not too polarizing, but I think that there is really a big difference between no business is moving at the speed of light this day these days, and like you said, like what work yesterday, it might not work today or tomorrow, even, and things are rapidly changing, like you went from across retail craft market to now selling wholesale I want from the wholesale markets now selling drugs to consumer on dh that even might change you know, maybe I'll develop another whole cell line some other day and sell it again I don't know, but I think one of the important things is to really be open and see what's working and what's not working and to be able to take action on that. So you know, I have this saying as I mentioned earlier, that the difference between a successful designers has really nothing to do with talent it's really about one's ability to take action and you will be able to adapt quickly to change so planning for uncertainty you know that you can't really do it because you don't know what's gonna happen but it's having like the mindset of being like, okay, well, I'm going to really be like investigating I'm going to see what's working and what's not working and I think instead of approaching a business that way, a lot of designers and makers or people who are creating a product trying to sell it in the world like they get stuck and they go down this rabbit hole like oh that's my business socks or like my my work sucks because like it's not selling but maybe you should shift your perspective maybe it's just not selling the way or trying to sell it so you know, it's just it's really? I think a lot of it about adapting tio uncertainty and change is to see what's working now, you know, like I had a designer in our community who has, like, insane business are a couple actually haven't seen business on instagram now, three years ago, they had insane business on facebook, and then facebook started drying up, so instead of being like, oh my god, I can't sell anything on facebook anymore, they thought, wait, well, there's, this new platform instagram, let me see how I can make that work for me and these two designers that I have in mind both have over thirty thousand followers on instagram, and they make daily sales on instagram on dh they both built their businesses over over, like five or six five figures a month that they're selling. They both have, like businesses that are doing like in, like multiple hundred thousands of dollars a year definitely over six figures, so it's exciting to see, you know, to see how how you can adapt for uncertainty so let's, just use an example like if you had a revenue, kel let's say like three hundred thousand dollars a year and don't let that number freak you out because everyone's going to be different and people are different places in business, but uh think about like, how you're going to get there. So, you know, what's working like what's, working right now and focus on those things, and when it starts to not work, try something new, test, adapt, grow and be open to something different, you know, I think about where it wass, you know, even when I started my custom jewelry business, you know, like I was thinking I was just going todo direct a consumer and he's selling, you know, just with these private clients, well, there was a time when I needed some extra income and I was open to different opportunities and something shifted, and I got hired by a foreign, a million dollar company, as a contractor, to just design for them. And I can honestly say that that was one of the best opportunities that was ever presented to me, that I actually tough because it was something that got me from point a to b point b, to get to my revenue goals and also set me up for financial stability so I could take some risks in other ways with my business and put myself out there more and, you know, work on getting the right kind of clients, and I think on top of that, it also provided me this opportunity, you know? To say no to people that weren't the right people so it's really about just being open to what being put in front of you and being able to change and take action on those things awesome. Fantastic well, thank you so much for joining us, tracy where can we find online? Well, you can find me a florist dr academy dot com that's uh by education company and then my personal brand website is tracy matthews dot com awesome. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks so much for having me awesome. All right, so were there any key takeaway is that you guys got anything that tracy said that really stuck with you joy it's not working don't stick with right? Absolutely I think I'm definitely of the employees mindset but what struck but I feel like I have a glimmer of hope because she works direct to consumer and when she was talking about that that's all my hot buttons that's what wes me work so it's like how can I shift to be that chief visionary person? Because that's made sense to write exactly right? So yeah, you know a lot of times what you get out of that employee mindset by doing more of those things actually light you up and help you see the bigger picture rather than just being stuck in the in the day to day kind of grind any other key takeaways I have a plan tonight before I know if I don't plan my day and the night before I go to my work space and I'm like I don't even know what I'm doing a great and that's when you check email then you check facebook and then you check instagram and then suddenly you're like oh it's noon I guess it's lunchtime okay yeah that plan is really key and we're going to talk more about kind of the idea of planning your day in the next lesson but when I want to do now is craft that big vision for your business right? Figure out what the big picture is because that's the first step right to being that chief visionary officer is tohave that vision and the other thing is that we're going to craft this vision but like tracy said you have permission to change it at any time we're gonna craft division we're gonna try it on but if it changes that's okay if your life shifts that's okay you could always change the vision but at least wanna have one to start with right? So what impact do you want your business to have? What impact do you want your business tohave on you on your family on your community on the world right? What impact do you want to have? How big do you want your business to be? Not just in terms of revenue goals you know how many people do you want to employ? Do you want to be one person? Do you dream of creating a great sustainable living for other people is well, and again, these things can change you. Tracey mentioned there was a point where she thought she wanted, right, that million dollar business and all of those people. And then she got in there and she was like, no, not not how I want my data look right. So that's okay too it's always okay to change it. But you know what do you want? How big do you want to be? How much time do you want to work? Right? I like tracy said, right? I didn't want to work that hard, but I still wanted to make a lot of money. It's okay to say that, right? And what do you want that work toe look like, right? What do you really want? Your data look like? It's probably never going to be forty hours a week, right of just making. But you, khun structure as much of that in it makes sense for you. What do you want your data look like, right? What do you want, the three things that you have to focus on to be right, what are those things that make you super excited? See you out of bed in the morning I'm gonna really riser to begin with right? My husband goes to work at six thirty I'm usually up pretty early when I was designing the pieces for the contra collection that about it like six a m I was in the studio as quick as I could be right because I could not wait to get to work that's what you want right what makes you want to jump out of bed every morning checking emails does not mean we want to talk about a bad right what does the future look like or does your business look like in the future how does it change what do your short term and your long term goals right? How much free time would you like much vacation do you want do you want to take weekends off? I actually a lot of times don't want to take weekends off I wanna work really hard for a couple of weeks about something I'm really excited about and then I want to take like a whole week or two off right that's what works for me? I don't care about monday through friday I get really excited when my husband's plans on saturday I want to work right but then I also want to take a week where he and I both don't work together right? So what do you want your free time to look like and what do you want to do in that free time that hobbies is it travel just want to chill what is it right what do you want to spend your money on right I want to put my money on travel we spent it on books I spend it on shoes right I know that it's important right what you spend your money on do you want do because that your passion about you want to give you charity right you want to have a better education for your kids what do you want to spend your money on all of those things going to your big vision so your exercise and your homework for this lesson it's a fun one right I want you guys to create ah vision board for your business and my vision board I mean visual right so I pulled this together here just kind of be because guy's an idea of what my vision for my business looks like at this moment right? What impact do we want tohave right I want women to feel more confident that's part of the impact that I want right? I want to make something that's going to live forever I love this andy warhol quote right the idea is not to live forever it is to create something that will that's what I want to dio right I want to create a piece or lots of pieces that live on and I don't want to be iris apfel to actually do kind of secretly wannabe iris out fell. I love her, but I want to encourage people to wear more jewelry, right? I think it's awesome. Someone I know just posted something on instagram this morning that was like accessorizing is empowerment. Yes, that's what I want, right? I want to spend time in my studio doing those things that light me up, right? But I also want to spend time doing that marketing stuff because this gets me really excited. I am as excited to plan the photo shoot as I am to make the peace for me. It's not done until this happens, right? I want to spend my time there. I also like going to shows I like spending time in cities, right? I want to be in new york because that's where my shows ar I want to be here in san francisco teaching on creative life. That's a part of what I want that vision to look like for my business. I want to travel. I want to take trips to europe when he would india and buy more stones. I want to go back to india as many times as I can write that's part of my vision, I wantto have nice clothes and buy pretty shoes, right? That's a part of the vision of what I want my business to support, I want to go somewhere warm every winter because hate winter, right? The business need to support that, and I have this long term vision for my business, this barn on my property, where I want to create this retreat space, where artists and creatives can come and they can learn, and they can connect that's a long term vision, right that's like my ten year plan, the big project, but it's on there because it's important to me, and I want to keep remembering it because the thing is you could put something in your ten year plan, but then it's also really easy to say next time like it's, my ten year plan next really it's my ten year plan, right? So I want to put it on there, so I keep it in the forefront, right? And then, once you've made that big vision, you could sit down and think about does your plan for future revenue and growth support the big vision does the kind of business that you're trying to build, support the gold to travel or to take time off or to have whatever inspires you creatively, right? Does it support that? If not, you're gonna have to re tweak? Don't change the vision right? Change the revenue strategy so what needs to change in your business to achieve this future vision? What do you have to do differently? Right? So in the next lesson we're going to create your daily and monthly action plan we're going to solve that problem that tracy was talking about we're going to figure out what you need to dio but first a little your homework for today I want you to complete the visioning exercise for your business take those questions that I went through take the workbook and sit with it right? A chief visionary officer doesn't rush through that they take the time they find a quiet space or if you can't think of a quiet space they find a noisy face right? Do it work street right? They get the cup of coffee or the glass of wine or whatever it is right sit down and spend some time with it. See what feels right then I want you to create a vision board for your business. I want you to post it prominently in your studio or your workspace, right when I create a new vision board I actually like to make mine the backdrop on my computer. I opened it up so if you're not sure you just do everyday and you want your computer and the first thing you see is that vision instant clarity right there, right? And if you want I want you to share a pic of your vision board on instagram, so maybe it's a collage, maybe it's, something you do on pinterest, whatever it is, I want you to share an image of your vision board on instagram and make sure that you use our hashtag make live cell so we can all see it. I want to see what everyone's big vision is. So get out there, share that vision, use that hash tag, and I will see you guys in the next lesson.

Class Description

"The Course is RICH in content and full of VALUE. I strongly believe this course is BETTER than 99% of the course out there." - Tajul Ghani (CreativeLive Student)

It's common for a crafter to get inspired and pour time and money into launching a creative business idea that they “just know” will be a hit only to discover that there isn’t much of a market for the business they envisioned. But it doesn’t have to be that way – there are specific actions you can take to ensure even the most creative endeavor makes money right away and doesn’t flop.

How to Make a Living Selling What You Make is your complete guide to building a thriving handmade business. Megan Auman is a maker and educator who has built a multi-faceted business around her passion for great design. Her jewelry line is sold in stores across the US and in this bootcamp she’ll teach you the recipe to her success. You'll learn how to:

Generate revenue from the beginning while balancing longer term growth

Find the best and worst revenue streams for your products

Set targets, create profitable pricing, and evaluate market demand

Deepen your product line and build your brand

Grow your email list and use social media for long-term growth

Develop production strategies as you start creating more product

This course includes a comprehensive workbook with exercises and activities designed to propel you through the lessons and position your business for sustainable success.

Megan will help you develop your business idea so you don’t waste time and money on projects that don’t pencil. She’ll also share insights on what to do once your business is up and running. She’ll coach you through best practices for hiring, outsourcing, and planning for the long haul. You’ll walk away confident that you can develop and stick with a business plan that won’t have you tied to a day job or pouring money into a project that doesn’t pay. How to Make a Living Selling What You Make will set you up to earn a serious income by doing what you love.

user a03f28

Love the shorter and longer format to this class. It keeps me interested and I don't have to schedule a whole day at once, during the free play. Well worth the money if you pay for the class too. Megan is amazing! She really knows business, marketing and has strategies which apply to all kinds of businesses. The work book is 150 pages long and breaks everything down into small bits and teaches you to really think about all aspects of your business. Where you were, are now and best of all where you want to be and how to get there. Highly recommend any of her classes. Thank you so much Megan and Creative Live for bringing us such wonderful content!

user-e2bf69

This course was totally awesome!!! I cannot express enough how fantastic Megan Auman is, what a great teacher she is, and am so thankful she offered it for FREE!!! Wow!!! It was exactly where I was at, stuck and frustrated. Exactly what I needed to begin to get my business off the ground. I am currently implementing all I have learned from her. Rebranding my self, rebuilding my website, new product shots, model shots, list building, etc., etc. I am still connected with the Facebook group, and that is awesome we have that connection to continue helping each other out and using each other as a sounding board. I plan on purchasing the course as soon as I can. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend this course to anyone who is struggling to get their business off the ground and going!!!

user-3f5a23

Thank you Megan for this opportunity.
I really liked the first classes. You indicated interesting directions to think about. Even though life verifies the rest it is still worth to become smarter. Great Work! Best regards from Poland. Ewa